Uncovering the Wonders of Nature in Cow Bay Nova Scotia

The Return of the Raccoon

The raccoon that absconded with the suet ball last week is back. His paired muddy prints on the snow tell the tale. Raccoon tracks reveal five fingers that give them their marvelous dexterity. Their tracks are usually plantigrade or flat-footed.

He’s been crawling under the deck looking for ‘who-knows-what’ and travelling to the side of the house where he’s proceeded to rip up the lawn, most likely in search of grubs. Apparently, raccoons can hear the grubs crunching on the roots of grass.

He’s also been digging in the hollyhock bed next to the foundation. I don’t know if he was able to find what he was looking for, but he sure did leave a mess. Years ago, one of my neighbors had to use a live trap to catch and relocate raccoons that were tearing up her lawn.

Raccoons eat a great variety of foods: insects, amphibians, fish, small mammals, birds and eggs. They’ll also eat roadkill, seeds and suet balls, plus whatever food humans will put out in their garbage.

Most of the neighbors make use of garbage cans or boxes to avoid the inevitable mess that plastic bags would invite. The city of Halifax also provides residents with large green compost containers that are picked up every second week.

Dawn, I saw a photo on the Internet of a woman with a huge raccoon in her lap which made me think you may not be exaggerating as much as you might think. They can grow to a great size if they’re well fed.

Raccoons are little bandits. Years ago when we camped on the shores of Arbutus Lake, Rob the Firefighter (then just a little boy) and his dad were down on the lakeshore looking at the stars. They heard a rustling, and a splashing. They saw a raccoon.

“Oh look,” whispered Rob’s dad. “The raccoon is washing its food!”

“Wait a minute,” said Rob the Firefighter-to-be. “It’s washing our food!” And so it was. It had extracted the metal shelf from the top of our cooler, dragged it down to the lakeshore, and set about washing the packages of cold cuts and cheese we had planned to have for lunch the next day. Rascally raccoon.